Eating Behavior At Teriyaki Boy

BACKGROUND

Teriyaki Boy is one of the leading fast-food chains in the country today, with 31 branches located all over Metro Manila and in other provinces of Luzon. They serve Japanese meals at reasonable prices and also aim to serve the customers at fast-food speed. Its first branch was located at Ortigas, and the significant popularity of the restaurant got the attention of the Pancake House Group. Soon after, Teriyaki Boy merged with the Pancake House Group.

Since its first store in 2001, Teriyaki Boy has been awarded numerous awards for the past several years. Last year, Teriyaki Boy was awarded the Most Outstanding Filipino Retailer in the Medium Sized Food Category by the Philippine Retailers Association of the Philippines, among others.

Currently, Teriyaki Boy is open to franchising with its goal of expanding their stores nationwide.

Teriyaki Boy’s market consists of families, businessmen and young adults of the A and B market. Their prices, although not as expensive as other Japanese restaurants, are still a little higher than the average fast food place.

PROBLEM

As a patron of Teriyaki Boy, there are few things that I can fault the restaurant. The food is good and also affordable. The ambiance is nice, which is relatively casual. They have a promotion where they guarantee that patrons will be seated in 15 minutes or less. Also, the service is good.

Considering that these are the good points of Teriyaki Boy, what are the marketing concepts that they can apply to ensure that they retain and increase their current customer base?

OBJECTIVES

1. To determine marketing strategies that are currently being applied by Teriyaki Boy to entice customers.

2. To apply marketing concepts in the behavior of my companions during the time of observation.

3. To recommend additional marketing concepts that may be used for Teriyaki Boy’s continued success.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Pre-Purchase

As we are waiting to be seated outside Teriyaki Boy in Festival Mall, I observe my subjects. It’s 1 pm on a weekend and the place is packed as is to be expected. While we are waiting, one of my companions asked for a menu, so he could look at the choices while we are seated, possibly eliminating additional waiting time in the process.

Prior to Teriyaki Boy, our group has been walking around the malls and shopping. You can expect that we are already hungry by the time we decided to eat at Teriyaki Boy. While they are flipping through the menus, one of them said that they are getting more hungry just by looking at the menu. The others agreed and still they continued to flip through. Every few minutes or so, one of them looks at their watch to know the elapsed time. Teriyaki Boy has a sign saying that they guarantee that they can seat people in 15 minutes or less, which was probably the reason why they were so interested in the time. A couple of minutes went by and one of the waiters of the restaurant informed us that a table was ready for the 6 of us. Once seated, the group asked for their orders to be taken.

During

There were inquiries on some of the items on the menu, mostly those that didn’t have pictures. 3 of my companions ordered their usual orders: katsudon, Teriyaki Boy chicken and Tempura Ramen. One ordered the Gindara Teriyaki, which is the second time I have seen him order. My last companion was looking around at the other patrons of the store and their orders. She saw something interesting and asked the waiter what the food was of the lady in front of her. The waiter answered that it was the Kakiage Tempura. After pausing for a bit and thinking about it, she just ordered her usual order, the Sukiyaki Beef Teriyaki

The food started to arrive a little over 10 minutes. The food was good, consistent with our previous dining experiences there. There were additional requests made by the party, such as extra seasoning, glasses of water and tissue paper. All requests were done by the waiters, although the water took longer to arrive than a few minutes. Afterwards, when the food was consumed, the party asked for the bill.

Post- Purchase

Upon receipt of the bill, the party then paid through a credit card. The payment took a little over 5 minutes, and after the receipts were signed, we stayed at the restaurant for a few more minutes, to get the food settled in our stomach first, while conversing animatedly. When we left, the staff graciously thanked our patronage and encouraged us to come back.

FINDINGS:

PRODUCT

Japanese Restaurants in the Philippines are hardly uncommon. Yet Teriyaki Boy has managed to differentiate itself from other Japanese restaurant. This is because they sought to merge two types of dining experience, authentic Japanese food and fast-food service. This differentiated them from other Japanese restaurants.

PRICE

Its affordable price also is a distinct feature of the restaurant, since Japanese restaurants are known to be more expensive than Filipino food. Teriyaki Boy has also managed to differentiate itself from the quality of its food and for the quality of its service. They recognize that this is an important attribute to every diner’s expectations.

In this reason, we can assume that Teriyaki Boy is practicing Product-Quality Leadership. They are one of the affordable luxuries that permeate our market today, distinguishing their product through its quality and taste, where their price is just high enough to still be within the reach of their catered market.

PLACE

The usual setting of a Teriyaki Boy restaurant is in shopping mall where it can cater to its market effectively. It also introduced its services to Metro Manila initially and focused on this market at first. When the chain of restaurants proved to be successful, it started opening branches in other parts of Luzon. It is now open to franchise to realize its target of opening branches nationwide.

Teriyaki Boy also capitalizes on its being an �affordable luxury’ and this reflects on the ambiance of the restaurant. It is not your typical